The back cover of ‘Made in America’ by Bill Bryson, which includes the line “Buy this book at once and have a nice day”.
“BUY THIS BOOK AT ONCE AND HAVE A NICE DAY”
Not only is Bill Bryson’s ‘Made in America’ a wonderfully illuminating book on American history and linguistics (in fact it should be required reading in the USA), the back cover of the 1998 Black Swan edition has great advice.
Excellent work. Do you have an email address I could contact you on, actually? Cheers.
Submissions for issue 22 (autumn/winter 2026) are now open until 31 March! We’re looking forward to reading your short fiction, poetry, flash & essays ✨
bansheepress.org/submit
Today’s podcast with
@petergeoghegan.bsky.social on the incredible story of Labour Together
Listen on Spotify
open.spotify.com/episode/5tkr...
Listen on Apple
podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/f...
Sign up for updates via freestatepodcast.com
"But here’s the thing. There are 342 million people in the United States and as you drive you constantly wonder where everybody is. The hearts of American towns are often extraordinarily empty."
From Keith Duggan's excellent snapshot of America in the @irishtimes.com today.
Looking forward to the next murder-mystery novel set in the Vatican, where a radicalised sect of AI-worshipping evangelists plot the overthrow of the incumbent who dared to stifle them.
futurism.com/artificial-i...
*Love* this video from @transparencyuk.bsky.social - what a compelling case for taking big money out of politics.
And who is that devilishly handsome Irish chap talking such sense in Parliament half way through 🤣
Despite having 'smart features' turned off on my Gmail, it appears that I still have no choice but to endure suggestions for alterations to (perfectly fine) sentences when drafting an email. It's like a hovering tutor obsessively pouncing on any opportunity to control and scold. Just fuck off.
The guy who staged a failed coup last time is building a massive personal militia staffed with lawless thugs. At this point it’s just naïve not to see where this is going.
God bless the archivists. This is worthy work from Miles, bravo.
In the New Statesman this week, I channel just some of my hatred toward AI Hype into 900 words.
On the grifters and rubes surfing a bubble atop a pyramid, and the economy-shattering fraud the rest of us can no longer escape.
www.newstatesman.com/science-tech...
University of Galway food bank forced to turn away hundreds of students each week
Don’t invest much into the moronic ramblings of cruel demagogues and the craven whims of billionaire dorks. Instead, regularly remind yourself about worthy concepts.
ryandelarge.wordpress.com/2026/02/19/n...
Don’t invest much into the moronic ramblings of cruel demagogues and the craven whims of billionaire dorks. Instead, regularly remind yourself about worthy concepts.
ryandelarge.wordpress.com/2026/02/19/n...
"The claim to deep thought can be a way of cowing the public... cod philosophy is used to launder dangerous ideas, to lend the ordinary corruptions of power an intellectual sheen."
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
A wonderfully candid interview in the Irish Times with Ireland Rugby captain Caelan Doris, touching upon vulnerability, going to therapy and persistent self-doubt.
www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/...
Snippet of Gore Vidal’s 1994 essay in The Nation magazine.
“…Our state lacks a Wizard of Oz to terrify all the people all the time. So the state looks inward, at the true enemy, who turns out to be– who else? The people of the United States.”
– Gore Vidal, writing in a Dec, 1994 edition of The Nation.
In what's now become an annual tradition, I've written another piece for The Gist about how and why I hate A.I.
On a bubble about to burst, a future rotted to its core, and the limits of the Mrs Doyle Theory of artificial intelligence.
www.thegist.ie/guest-gist-2...
The Higher Education Authority has published its policy framework for generative AI in higher education teaching and learning.
hea.ie/2025/12/22/h...
Policy framework:
hub.teachingandlearning.ie/genai/policy...
Resource portal:
hub.teachingandlearning.ie/genai
Thanks to everyone involved.
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
My new work Redd is live on @Kickstarter
It is a 7 year exploration of community interaction within inland waterways. Link for preorders here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/gae... #35mmFilm #AnalogPhotography #FilmPhotography #PhotobookCollector #PhotoBookCommunity #KickstarterPhotobook
If you think that an entire estate shouldn't be summarily evicted by absentee landlords, lend your voice to this petition in support of people in Killarney.
chng.it/Mt4JsYgD5Q
"...the idea of a sportsperson being so infantilised as to hail the arrival of a politician onsite as something that might turn a match around is just so eye-bleedingly ludicrous. But this is seemingly where America is at now."
www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/2...
Politicos, hacks, news organisations and buffoons like Stephen King still clinging on to pretending it’s alright to *PAY* Elon Musk to use his platform - or be on it for a start.
You’re funding a man calling on hundreds of thousands of people to carry out acts of violence.
![Phil Ochs - The Power and The Glory [with "controversial" verse] (1963)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ghqsynxehywvi7lbsba2it63/bafkreietkf5366uopgmfo72ysh4vqln6hsq32unpjxmfqq5dyir6jrozjq)
